The bus left Edinburgh at 8-ish.
I get the idea that they’d have liked to have left earlier, but some people had been told to go to the wrong place for pick-up, which complicated things.
There were also a couple who had misread the date on the ticket, but they managed to fit them on anyway.
This image, I think, illustrates why I didn’t take many pictures from the window of the bus, despite having a window seat.
And also why I didn’t need sunblock.
I was hoping it’d be doing this while the Loch Ness part of the trip, for maximum spooky, but that didn’t happen.
First stop of actual significance, because a roadside cafe with a gift shop doesn’t qualify, was Glencoe, site of some of the worst manners shown by a guest in recorded history.
Nowadays it’s the site of some skilled, daring, and at times ambitious tour bus parking.
Also a piper, who might be in that scrum behind me.
This probably counts as a ‘photographing photographers’ selfie, if I’m keeping track; Not sure if that’s better or worse than the non-selfie version, to be honest.
There were a lot of tour buses, plus regular tourists in regular vehicles.
As such, taking a photo without a bus or selfie stick in it took some doing.
Early attempt.
Looks like I’m trying to product-place the tour company, but I’m pretty happy with how the landscape came out.
(this is, incidentally, the bus I was on, or at least part of it)
Foreboding clouds, impressive hills.
Still kind of looks like a car ad.
OK, so I just zoomed in on the phone before taking this one.
I like the clouds though.
A sea of clouds, above a sea of tourists.
I mean, I could crop it, but I find the cluster of people, cameras, cars, and cameras on sticks to be sort of funny.
The tour guide, I should mention, did talk about why we were stopping here, why it was important, and so on.
I’d love to claim that it felt sort of dark and foreboding, but … that’s just the landscape and the weather.
Sorry.
Looks a lot like chunks of the South Island though, doesn’t it?
Possibly the best themed WiFi symbol ever, with added Man-In-Kilt in the background.
Next was Loch Ness.
More accurately, due to a slightly delayed start and some time spent stuck behind a truck or two, next up was an accelerator & brake mad dash, along very winding roads carved into hills, in a very large bus, to make the Loch Ness Ferry sailing.
It was a lurchy experience.
Some folk were dropped off at Urquart Castle, to explore the ruins & be collected later, while the rest of us went on ahead to catch the ferry which went back up the loch to said castle.
I’d opted for the boat ride option when the weather was frankly a bit shitter, back at Glencoe.
There was a substantial covered & enclosed area on the boat, with obligatory coffee vending setup.
It was also very loud; Engines + Tourist Commentary + Multiple Small Children Who Were, Frankly, Over This.
I ran away to the upper deck, where there was rain of a sparse but stingingly cold nature, and much fewer sources of noise.
Also people who were a bit more interested in seeing the Loch itself.
I should note that I do not put much faith in the argument that an insurance company wouldn’t have covered a bunch of triathletes competing in Loch Ness for a million pounds against ‘monster attacks’ unless they believed there was something there. Rather, I think they could barely keep the grins from their faces as they took the premiums, and were maybe wondering about offering Sasquatch coverage too.
Eventually, we made it to the castle, or the remains thereof, and picked up the folks we’d dropped off.
(It’d have been much more atmospheric if the mist & cloud had hung around at low level, but such is life)
Yes, I took a lot of pictures of a castle, and yes, I’ve subjected you to most of them.
Trust me, I deleted the really crap ones.
I didn’t notice it at the time, but I’m finding it interesting that in some of the pictures it’s obvious that this is a ruin, and in others, really not.
And that’s it for the photos.
There was a lot of time spent on a bus, passing through scenery of a spectacular, or at least pretty nature, but cellphones don’t do well at landscapes, particularly from a moving vehicle. Thus, no pictures.
The Highlands are well worth a visit though.